West Houston residents hope arrest of recent robbery suspects’ arrests will reduce crime after series of shootings in area

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Westside neighbors fed up with unrelenting gunfire in their neighborhood got some much-needed relief Monday afternoon as Houston police made a dramatic arrest just hours after another shooting.

Nancy Jaffus first reached out to ABC13 on Sunday, after another shooting in an apartment complex next to the Walnut Bend subdivision.

“It’s been four major incidents on our street in the last couple of weeks,” Jaffus said. “It’s just unbelievable how sad it’s gotten. It’s a great neighborhood. We have so many young families here. The fact that our kids aren’t safe makes my blood boil.”

The midday shooting happened next to the Avenstar Apartments on the corner of Lynbrook and Lakeside Estates. Cell phone video obtained by ABC13 shows two young men, one in a black hoodie and one in a red hoodie, arguing with an apparent victim. The video then shows one of the men holding up an automatic rifle and firing multiple times.

The shooting happened just around the corner from where Ethan McCarron lives, and it’s the fourth one in the last six months.

“When the shootings became more aggressive, me and a couple of neighbors decided to look for who it was,” McCarron, who says he and several other homeowners had identified the group they believe were responsible for several shootings and even tried to talk to them, said. “So I wouldn’t call it a vigilante group we’re not going out to get shot. We are looking for law enforcement to step in to do something.”

As we were conducting these interviews on Monday, members of the Westside Gang and Tactical units were already conducting undercover operations in the area. Meanwhile, we saw several young men who appeared to fit the description of the suspects in Sunday’s shooting walking around the neighborhood.

Around 4 p.m. on Monday, one of the neighbors interviewed by ABC13 reached back out, saying Houston police had people detained at a nearby car wash. ABC13 arrived at the scene to see young men under arrest.

Houston police confirmed to ABC13 that all three will be facing criminal charges. They have confirmed they recovered the automatic rifle and the red hoodie seen in the cell phone video. Besides the shooting on Sunday, Police believe the suspects could be responsible for several other shootings in the neighborhood in the past few months.

Untangling all the connections and sorting out all the charges will take some time. The investigation is ongoing, but residents in Walnut Bend and Lakeside Estates hope the arrests will finally bring them some peace.

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